Former Burlington police chief well remembered after passing away at 93

Wednesday

Apr 23, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 23, 2014 at 7:03 PM

Natalie Allison Janicello / Times-News

A former chief of the Burlington Police Department died Friday at age 93, though his experience and accomplishments extended far beyond Alamance County.

Jesse R. James Jr., of Raleigh, served as Burlington police chief between 1956 and 1960.

But he was a memorable figure.

Those who knew James at the time may recall his right wooden leg, which was a result of being struck by artillery shelling in April 1944 at Anzio Beach, Italy, where he also lost part of his left foot while serving as an Army lieutenant.

Before going to Italy, James and three of his first cousins survived the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941, after which he graduated from Officer Candidate School, Ordinance School and Engineer School, according to James’ obituary in the News & Observer.

“He was quite a fella’,” said Don Bolden, editor emeritus and former cop reporter for the Times-News.

Bolden said while going to the police department every day, he came to know James well and the two became good friends.

He recalled several stories about James, mentioning one occasion in particular in which the police chief stepped in when Bolden was in danger.

“He saved my neck one night,” Bolden said, referring to a night in 1958 when Bolden and another Times-News staff member were taking photos at a Ku Klux Klan rally on Graham’s court square. Bolden said federal and state bureaus of investigation were at the event, and wanted the Times-News to photograph it so law enforcement could identify who was in attendance.

Bolden said some people in the crowd didn’t like that the reporters were taking pictures, so they pushed Bolden to the side and were preparing to destroy his camera — and most likely hurt him — when James stepped in.

“As things got a little bit hot, I felt this big hand on my shoulder and a big, booming voice said ‘This young man is with me,’” Bolden recalled.

Bob Keen, a retired Burlington police officer, also remembered James as a large man.

“Jesse was a real big guy, maybe 6’6”,” Keen said.

When Keen got out of the military, he walked into the Burlington Police Department one day and asked James for a job, though he had no law enforcement training. James brought him on that day.

“Him and I got along real good,” Keen said. “Jesse had a handicap because of his foot, and I had a handicap from my speech impediment. I just sat down and talked to him and he said, ‘Boy, I’m gonna give you a chance because I think you can get the job done.’”

Keen later retired from the department, where he spent his entire 30-year law enforcement career.

Bolden recalled another instance when James’ kindness was evident through his interaction with another person, that time a child.

He said James started a boys’ club that met upstairs at the police department, and one of the members was a small, very shy kid who had a leg problem. Bolden remembered that as the boy was sitting by himself against a wall one night, James took notice.

“Jesse walked over to sit in a chair beside him and pulled his pant leg up and patted his wooden leg and looked at the kid,” Bolden said. “(The boy’s) face just lit up.”

Bolden believed that brief interaction with James significantly affected the boy.

Another noteworthy fact about Jesse R. James Jr., Bolden said, was that he had an uncle named Frank James — the name of outlaw Jesse James’ older brother — which resulted in an operator hanging up on James when he was trying to call his uncle one time.

Bolden remembered when movie cowboy Hopalong Cassidy, otherwise known as William Boyd, was the grand marshal in Burlington’s 1956 Christmas parade, and the cowboy hero and James, the cop, posed together for a picture.

After leaving the Burlington Police Department, James went on to work various other positions, including chief of the Charlotte Police Department, assistant director of the UNC Institute of Government and jobs in other states.

It was unclear how James died or if he had been sick, though Bolden said he had been in a retirement home “for a number of years.”